"I'm Much Happier Now Than I Was as an Accountant"
"Korean Society Is Overly Conscious of Others' Opinions"
The story of a woman in her 30s who gave up a stable life and chose to work part-time cleaning bathrooms, despite having built her career and earned a high salary at one of the "Big Four" accounting firms in Korea and Japan, has attracted attention.
Lee Yunjae (31), who was featured in a recent video titled "Why I Quit My 100 Million Won Accounting Job to Clean Bathrooms" uploaded to the YouTube channel "I Am the Boss," spent her childhood in Japan, maintained excellent grades, and passed the Japanese Certified Public Accountant exam in her third year of university. She then worked as an accountant in both Korea and Japan for seven years before resigning in October of last year.
Lee explained that becoming an accountant was not her original dream. She said, "When I was in my final year of high school, my mother became ill. I thought she would be happy if I worked in a professional field, so I started studying to become an accountant."
She shared that, although she grew up being told she was "special" throughout her school years, she found herself just one of many ordinary accountants after joining an accounting firm, which led to feelings of doubt. A high school friend's comment, "I thought you would live a more special life," made her question her path even more deeply.
Rereading a diary entry she had written in the past about the life she wanted to live made her seriously consider quitting. She said, "In my diary, I wrote that I wanted to start my day reading a book in the morning and end it by writing in my journal after a walk at night. At the accounting firm, I lived a life completely opposite to that."
Ultimately, Lee decided to give up her accounting job, which paid 100 million won a year, and resign. She said, "It was not an easy decision to give up financial stability and my career, but the fear that I might regret living a life I didn't want 20 or 30 years later was even greater." She worried that she might feel miserable after starting her part-time job cleaning bathrooms, but said, "I don't feel miserable at all. In fact, I'm much happier than I was as an accountant."
However, Lee clarified that cleaning bathrooms was not her chosen profession, but rather an opportunity she encountered while preparing to start a life coaching business. Currently, she is working part-time at a hospital while also pursuing her life as a life coach. Lee said, "It seems that many people in Korean society live overly conscious of how others see them," and added, "I want to be someone who shows people who don't know what kind of life they want how to find their own path."
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